Tindie

The cyber sale continues! With Tindie’s deals running until December 6th, 2020, there’s still time to grab some of your favorite hardware and kits at great discounts! Cyber Monday is a perfect time to support the small businesses spread across the Tindie community.

Head over to tindie.com/sale to check out the full list, but in the meantime, here are a few sales to inspire your search:

• Set yourself up for open source Lipo battery charging with 15% off the LiPow.
• Practice your soldering skills while also creating a companion PCB for Doepfers DIY Synth board, thanks to a slick deal in mb’knobs!

Remember, these deals are running until December 6th, so get your orders in for the holidays, and happy soldering from all of us here at Tindie!

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The benefit of Tindie has always been the virtual setting. Long lines and massive crowds on Black Friday have always been difficult, but in 2020 they are strongly discouraged, leaving people to shop for deals online where the only obstacle is remembering your password so you can check out.

You can find all of Tindie’s Black Friday deals as tindie.com/sale, but we’ve got a few examples ready for you to get that cart nice and full like your stomach after Thanksgiving dinner:

• Save nearly $40 off an ACD52840 IoT Dev Board for ultra-low power operations, with a portable, credit card-sized form factor!
• Take a cool $30 off the price of a Mercury 2 DIP FPGA Board, bringing it down to the lowest price of the year!

Head on over to tindie.com/sale for the full list, and have safe, savings-filled holiday weekend!

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This year’s holidays look a lot different than most years. Most people will be isolating at home instead of spending them with family, but as we continue to get through this global health crisis together, technology continues to provide us with both the means to stay connected and the ability to create new and useful solutions. For some of us, a new project is just what’s needed to keep our mental health in check.

While we have dearly missed the opportunity to gather together with the greater Tindie community this year, we are pleased to announce this year’s Cyber Sales! This year’s deals begin November 26th and last until December 6th!

You can find all the latest sales and deals at tindie.com/sale! Curious to know what’s on offer? Here are a couple previews:

• Pixelblaze and its associated accessories are 15% off!
• Catch a great deal on a prior year’s Hackaday Prize Finalist project, the uRAD Monitor for automated air quality monitoring!

We’ll be featuring plenty more sales in posts across Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so stay tuned for more, and keep a tab open on tindie.com/sale for all the latest products!

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As we’ve seen time and time again, electronics engineering and PCBs are more than capable of being works of art. Whether it’s the superb circuit sculptures we’ve seen, or the application of a solder-mask and silkscreen on a PCB to create a durable and unique decoration, there are plenty of options out there.

The RedOfShawshank Micro Decoration caught my eye as it brings to mind a very relevant and positive message I think we could all benefit from in the year 2020. The inclusion of a message that reads “Hope is a good thing,” emphasizes the message behind the illustration.

The decoration itself is a transparent solder-mask on a black base with a white silkscreen. The surface finish is ENIG golden and the size is 50x50mm, hence the classification as a “micro decoration.” A pair of M3 Hex Spacers are also included for standing it up.

If you haven’t seen the film that inspired this project, please do yourself a favor and check it out. Stay safe out there, fellow makers!

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My first experience with E-paper and E-ink was the original Amazon Kindle, but even back then the concept of electronic paper that mimicked the look and feel of the real thing was incredibly interesting. From a reading perspective, it took out the eye strain of reading something on a screen with a backlight, but the possibilities go far beyond that.

This Arduino Micro Compatible E-paper E-ink board takes the technology and shrinks it down to a smaller scale, just 35x45mm with a micro USB port. The board is compatible with EPD and GxEPD libraries, which you can download and add to Arduino. It also ships with the Arduino bootloader installed, meaning you can connect it via USB and start programming right away.

Included in the purchase is the board itself and a 1.54″ two color (black and red) E-paper display. Something to consider is that when you’re working with E-paper displays larger than 2.9″, RAM memory limitations become a factor with the ATMEGA32u4 since this design doesn’t include separate RAM.

Shipping times are longer than normal as well due to COVID-19, but those looking to start working with E-paper will know that a kit like this is well worth the wait.

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In the badgelife world, SAOs (a tongue-in-cheek name stands for Shitty-Add-On, there are small, artistic, light up circuit boards) are a household name. They come in all shapes and sizes, usually reference jokes or pop culture, and just all around offer a cool way to expand and enhance badges you have.

I’m a little biased here because I personally met TwinkleTwinkie at Supercon 2019 and purchased that year’s Christmas ornament (which is amazing by the way), but all it takes is a pair of eyeballs to see the care and craftsmanship that goes into TwinkleTwinkie designs.

Enjoy those and many others with the SAO Badge 2020, which is the kind of news I like to see in this year of years. This badge is a simple 2 SAO holder with the option to power it via USB C or 2 AA batteries. It has the requisite 2×3 Keyed Female connector for SAO v1.69bis and is compatible with the SAO 2×2 design.

The toggle switch lets you move between USB and battery power, doubling as a power switch when the other is not in use. The attention to detail also comes down to how you show it off. An M4 hole in each corner lets you mount it to something or wear it on your person.

Since many badges don’t support SAOs on their own, this simple design lets you display your add-ons without too much hassle. As a bonus, you can even add on a few SAOs with your purchase on the store page! There are some classics there, so I would recommend grabbing a few on your way to checkout.

Here’s hoping this SAO badge will brighten your day in a year that puts the “S” in SAO. Stay safe everyone!

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Electronic components are amazing pieces of technology, but unless you’re working with NASA or the military, they tend to be quite vulnerable to the elements. This presents challenges when working with projects that are used outdoors or in remote areas. Beyond even this, sometimes you just need a way to transport everything without being worried it will get damaged.

For this purpose, the Breadbox Double presents a simple and elegant solution. This weather resistant case fits two 1/2 size breadboards and features open sides to make working on the board easy. A gland seal on the bottom also gives you a place to pass your wiring through, which eliminates the need to mod the case like other options out there.

The case itself is 3D-printed using durable ABS and the design includes a rubber foam seal between the base and the cover to keep out water or dust. There’s even a lens on the exterior so you can view an LED from outside the enclosure. The Breadbox Double comes with two 1/2 size breadboards installed.

Given other, more limited options that don’t account for open sides or places to pass wiring through, this is a convenient choice for the prototyping maker on-the-go.

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Doorbells, until recent years, have been simple devices. They notify you when someone is at the front door with a chime or tune, and that’s about it. Smart doorbells offer additional features like video or recording, so you know who’s there before opening up.

The Doorbell Modernizr 2 offers a way to transform your current setup into something smarter. Once installed, it can connect your doorbell to Wifi and send a signal to your home automation system whenever it’s used (currently it supports Home assistant, Domoticz, and Openhab).

This signal also lets you set up other scenarios where you could receive a notification to your phone, take a photo of the person at the door with a separate camera, or anything else you’d like to do with this connected doorbell. The Modernizr 2 also gives you the ability to shut off the doorbell entirely from your home automation system if you prefer.

The device comes pre-assembled and pre-programmed in a 3D-printed housing. You’ll need to provide a micro USB power supply, but there’s an option to order one with the device. While it does come pre-programmed using an ESP8266 microprocessor, you can make any changes you’d like.

Included instructions give you multiple ways to hook up the device for different levels of functionality. Any way you slice it, it’s a far easier way to make your doorbell smarter.

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As someone who recently bought a house, I have been learning a lot of new things very quickly. From minor repairs, to DIY projects, to plumbing and septic systems, it’s a lot to absorb. Like most people, I also have an inherent fear of a pipe bursting one day and flooding my kitchen.

This LoRaWAN Pipe Pressure Sensor caught my eye as something that could prevent a catastrophe like that from happening. Thanks to the EM500-PP sensor, you can measure pressure from liquids or gases to monitor things like tank level and pipe leakage.

A 10-year battery life combines with LoRaWAN connectivity to ensure reliable connections from long distances. Simply turn on the NFC and attach the sensor to the area and then download the toolbox app on your smartphone to configure the sensor accordingly.

This handy method of monitoring will prevent any major leakage danger, offers shock and vibration resistance, and measures with an accuracy of less than +/-0.% FS. It also includes temperature compensation for higher accuracy.

Whether you’re a new homeowner like me, or you want to avoid having maintenance come out to fix your apartment, this is a good way to keep a digital eye on your pipes.

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Beyond a supply of power, perhaps the next most important thing for electronics is some sort of cooling solution. Heat is your enemy, and even the most simple of designs can generate enough to quite literally fry themselves.

The best solutions combine both, which is why the ClusterCTRL: Stack offers a great option to keep a stack of 5 Raspberry Pi not only powered, but cool as well. Once you power it on, the stack powers on each Raspberry Pi after a 1-second delay.

The GPIO (BCM18) pin is monitored as well from each Pi. Setting it at high allows the corresponding fan to turn on as needed to keep the Pi cool. While you can use any software on the Raspberry Pi nodes, to control them you’ll need to manually install the clusterctrl software.

Enabling the fans to turn on and off automatically requires some simple edits to the /boo/config.txt file on each Raspberry Pi. This also allows you to specify the temperature thresholds for on and off.

The ClusterCTRL Stack comes with everything you need to build it, but you’ll need to supply the power supply, Raspberry Pi stack, and optional add-ons like the fans and USB cable. You can also choose to add a 3D-printed cases when ordering as well. Those who want a simple and effective way to power and monitor a stack of Raspberry Pi should look no further.

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